Sheriff Wayne Ivey announced Wednesday that an investigation into the EDR software purchase by the school district in 2013 found no evidence of criminal wrong doing. Video by Malcolm Denemark

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Brevard Public Schools Superintendent Desmond Blackburn sits down with Florida Today on Monday to discuss his takeaways from last school year and his priorities for the upcoming year.(Photo: Caroline Glenn/FLORIDA TODAY)Buy Photo

"Never would have imagined two years would have lapsed and we wouldn’t have our product," Superintendent Desmond Blackburn said in an interview Tuesday.

Canada-based Harris School Solutions bought Educational Data Resources in 2015, inheriting an controversial software deal that the Brevard County school district had already paid $5.9 million for and never received. Harris has worked without pay to develop the software for Brevard schools since then.

Shortly after the purchase, the company's senior executive vice president Tim Fitzgerald told the board, "We don't buy a company just to buy a company...we look at this as an opportunity to increase our footprint in Florida. We're really here to make sure you are successful."

But Blackburn said there seemed to be a "disconnect" between Harris higher-ups and their employees about what was actually being accomplished. At multiple meetings, Harris executives were surprised to hear about missed deadlines and components of the software that still needed work.

Blackburn said he never got an explanation for those missed deadlines.

"We gave time and opportunity for them to deliver on what was promised and what we paid for. We established timelines and those timelines continued to go by the wayside," he said. "I do believe the organization bit off more than they could chew."

Despite those problems, Blackburn said the relationship between Harris and Brevard Public Schools was very positive. As progress stalled, leaders from both organizations began to discuss finding an amicable way to put an end to their relationship.

Blackburn says things turned sour after someone within the school district forwarded FLORIDA TODAYan email Blackburn wrote to the school board detailing a meeting on Nov. 8.

In the email, which Blackburn acknowledged was probably public record, Blackburn said Harris executives claimed "everything is going well with the project" and expressed frustration over the acquisition of EDR.

He went on to say that both groups were seriously considering walking away from the project, and he "got the impression that they (Harris) would rather put closure on the relationship in a positive manner rather to risk total failure that would certainly impact the Harris brand."

The relationship "kind of went south" after that "premature release of information," he said, and settlement talks were elevated to the Harris and BPS legal teams.

"That was a pivot point. I wouldn’t say it caused anything, but that was definitely a pivot point," Blackburn said. "Once that happened, they lawyered up."

Andy Ziegler, the only board member left who approved the EDR purchase in 2013, agreed, saying he was under the impression the two teams were close to a resolution before that FLORIDA TODAY report came out and things "fell apart."

"If that information wasn't disclosed, they may have resolved this" with a settlement instead of a lawsuit, he said.

Legal teams from Harris and the school district were in settlement talks for about six months, but Blackburn said, "it just just didn't appear that they were really interested in returning resources to this district."

During that time, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office concluded a two-year-long investigation into the deal with Educational Data Resources, finding no criminal wrongdoing.

That left filing a lawsuit as the only option, Ziegler said.

"There's no other option. They're not going to come through," he said of Harris.

Blackburn believes the lawsuit is the school district's "best opportunity" to recover any money.

"There is the dollar amount that we paid, there is the time and energy that staff members have put forth toward trying to implement the creation and implementation, there is our inability to move forward and perhaps go down a different path," Blackburn said of the costs associated with the failed EDR software.

"Right now my goal, my hope is that we recover as much as possible."

Caroline Glenn is the Education Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact her at caglenn@floridatoday.com or 321-576-5933, or follow her on Twitter @bycarolineglenn and like "Education at Florida Today" on Facebook.